Kodaikanal and Madurai trip

After four days of fighting with diarrhoea, vomitting and fever (ah yeah, they were three and quite tough but I kicked their asses!!!) I'm back to tell you about my first big trip to Kodaikanal and Madurai that took place between April 10 and 15. It was a long weekend since it was a Good Friday on Friday (surprisingly ;o)) and Tamil New Year on Tuesday. Moreover, Kodaikanal is a very favourite destination of many Indians living in this Chennai hell. That's why this trip was planned well in advance to make sure that we (Melanie and me) get train tickets and some cheap hostel to stay at as well. First I spent more than one weak trying to find out how to get train tickets when all trains are already hopelessly booked out and there are waiting lists of 300 people. Thanks god there is this Foreign Tourist Quota that reserves few places for foreign tourists. Although the guy at railway station wasn't very happy about our business and entry visa (this quota is only for tourists with tourist visa!!!), with confused faces and sad eyes we were able to persuade him to make an exception ;o) Then I spent another week trying to find some cheap but clean accomodation. Finally I took a risk and booked a hotel that had surprisingly nice website and was not that expensive but about which I didn't know anything more since I wasn't able to find any on-line references. So everything was ready and we could go!

The train was leaving Chennai at 21:40 and we were supposed to spend 8h on it. We were travelling by cheap non A/C sleeper class that most of middle-class Indians usually take for longer distances. Well, since it was my first train travel, I was quite curious and a bit scared. From ouside the train looked like a rabbit hutch but it was not that bad inside (in fact, given the price of ticket, it was very good!!!) Just the smell of toilet was quite strong ;o) People around us looked quite nice as well (one Indian guy was so amazed by my talkativeness ;o)) so I was not scared anymore: these nice people are definitely not going to rob or hurt us!!! Hmm, when a lady sitting on the opposite seat started to wind her and her daughters' backpacks with a long chain with a lock, the first part of my belief was a bit shaken. However, using my backpack as a pillow and hiding my purse under the blanket appeared to be safe enough ;o)

Doesn't the train look just comfortable?

OK, I'll try to make this story a bit shorter again ;o) So, we arrived to our station unrobbed and unharmed and continued by bus to the final destination Kodaikanal.

Kodaikanal - April 11-13

It is a Tamil Nadu favourite hill station situated 520km from Chennai. Since its altitude is more than 2 000 meters, the climate here is much friendlier than in Chennai and basically almost the whole Tamil Nadu. When we arrived on Saturday the morning, it was about 18 degrees (FREEZING!!!) and raining...WHOW, what a difference!!! We checked-in at our hotel which was quite a nice surprise (big clean room with a nice western-type bathroom!), I just had to explain to the receptionist that double room means a room for TWO persons and two persons need TWO towels (if I had known how bad those towels were, I wouldn't have made any effort though) . Then we met Vimarshan (I've already told you about this guy before) and his colleague Partha who arrived to Kodai a day before. In fact, we were really lucky that Vim and Partha were there with us because without them the trip would be quite stressful and we wouldn't definitely see that much.

The town was crowded like a hell. There were traffic jams and crowds of Indians in caps, scarfs and gloves (they looked so funny ;o)) all around. Obviously, we were not the only people who wanted to spend few peaceful days in this nice cool place. Luckily, Vim and Partha met a guy who knew some nice not crowded places in Kodai and was willing to take us there at quite a reasonable place. And so he did! In two and half days, we saw many nice places and had a lot of fun. From touristic point of view, the weather wasn't ideal (quite foggy and sometimes raining) but from Chennai residents' point of view, it was just AWESOME!!! I have almost forgotten what it is like not to be sweating whole the day round. I guess there is no need for long descriptions, just take a look at these pictures and if you want to see some more, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/petra.pistkova/KodaikanalApril1113#.

One of our first breathtaking views.















Lady Conqueror!!! ;o)

Three "don't speak, don't hear, don't speak" monkeys sitting on the edge of a rock. It was quite scary to get down there but it was definitely worth it!

Famous Pillar Rocks trying to hide in fog.

Aren't they just cute? Monkeys were everywhere and they didn't seem to be very scared of people ;o)

Lovely blue village with step fields.














We did a bit of trekking in the valley behind me.















View from famous Coaker's walk. On a clear day you can see very far from here. Unfortunatelly, our day was not clear at all. But still the view was great.















Yeah, that's what I was talking about ;o)














One need to relax and meditate a bit in these stressful days ;o)














Dolphin's Nose

So, that was Kodaikanal. Really nice place with really nice climate. On Monday afternoon, Mel and me said goodbay to Vim and Partha, who were already going back to Chennai, and continued to Madurai.

Madurai - April 13-14

After quite a scary bus ride down the mountains (this driver must have been F1 racer in his previous life or he has a suicidal inclinations!!!) we arrived to our next destination. Madurai is one of the oldest continually inhabited city in the Indian peninsula. With its Meenakshi-Sundareswar Temple, Madurai is one of the most important Hindu pilgrimage sites of India. Although we arrived in the evening, the difference in temperature was still quite perceptible: welcome back in hell!!! We were really lucky to find a cheap and nice lodge, had a dinner on a rooftop of one hotel with a wonderful view, went for a short walk and then to bed to be fresh enough for next hot day.

We got up early in the morning to avoid merciless sun and heat as well as crowds in temple. However, it was already hot and temple was quite crowded. But still it was very nice. Although I've already seen many temples, this was a bit different. It is one of the gratest Shiva temples. It's a huge labyrinth with 9 gopurams, temple tank, art museum, sanctuary and places for praying and meditation. It's more colourful than temples that I've seen so far and the atmosphere is more relaxed, without people pushing each other (although there were lines of pilgrims waiting to get to the sanctuary where we as non-Hindus were not allowed). We got lost few times and we were even not sure if we saw everything that was worth seeing, but we had a great time just relaxing and watching people praying and meditating.

One of 9 huge gopurams.















Golden Lotus Tank with holy water, of course.




















Colourful ceilings, colourful people...nice.















I was wondering if these kids are really so religious or if they are just forced to be. They seemed to be quite bored and very scared of their teacher.

We spent about 2 hours in the temple and decided to leave its friendly shade and go to the flower market. But first we had to find our shoes. Since we came quite early and thus before the main crowds, our shoes must have experienced many adventures. And obviously they have forgotten to come back from their trip around temple because when we came to the place where we left them before, they were not there. It was quite easy to find my sandals, since they are blue and very different from most of Indian sandals. However, it was not that easy with Mel's shoes. We found one pretty fast but the second one took us many minutes and we were already quite desperate. Luckily, we finally found it and decided to put our shoes into a plastic bag or something and take them in next time.

Unfortunatelly we didn't find the flower market so we went at least to vegetable one.














After the lunch and afternoon nap we went to Gandhi Museum which is supposed to be pretty good. To our big disappointment, since it was a holiday (Tamil New Year), it was closed although the receptionist of our lodge assured us that everything would be open. Grrr!!!

Gandhi Museum















Hmm, I just wonder what is the link between tyrannosaurus and hindu gods...

When we were desperately sitting in front of the museum, a rickshaw puller came with this story about wonderful flower market 2 km from the museum. We wanted to see the market but we didn't want him to take us there. This guy was so skinny, he couldn't have more than 40kg! And he wanted to drive two of us (more than 100kg). It was such an internal fight for me. On one hand you want to help this guy by giving him business and making him earn some money, on the other hand you feel so guilty when you sit inside and see the skinny guy peddaling and sweating. AAAHHH!!! But he was so persistent that finally we took him. And it was terrible! I felt so bad! It was my first and definitely last time travelling by this means of transport.

Thank you, boss, for surviving this 2 km distance!!!

Flower market sucked. But after the museum disappointment we were already kind of resistent to any other. We decided to make the rest of afternoon relaxing. We took an auto to Thirumalai Naykar Palace or better said: its remainings. It didn't look very special from outside but it was very nice inside - especially because it's being renovated and they're just painting it and so far they only used two colours (yellow and red) so it's very sober, completely uncolourful and non-Indian ;o)

Our last destination was St. Mary's Cathedral where we wanted to hide from the hot sun. But since it was closed, we just spent an hour chatting in a shade of a school courtyard before we got back to our lodge, took a dinner and went to the railway station.

So, this was my first big trip. Despite some stress while preparing it and some little disappointments (and the diarrhoea that followed ;o)), I really enjoyed it and I'm so much looking forward to all incoming trips!